Structured Activities When You’re Stuck Inside
By Amanda “Mandy” Mich, MS, CCC-SLP
Here in Chicago, the weather changes every day. Some days are warm, with the sun out and the temperature is in the 40s and 50s. Other days, the sun is gone for days on end with bitter cold and icy wind. Those days when families cannot go out to the park, go for a walk, or go into the community can be challenging for kids and parents alike. Here are some ideas for structured language activities when you and your family are stuck inside.
Consider heavy work.
Heavy work can be anything where your child is using their muscles. When playing at the playground is not an option, try these ideas instead:
Obstacle courses: I love taking pillows off the couch and using them as stepping stones. This can be great for working on balance, where your child has to use all their muscles to not fall down. For kiddos working on expanding play ideas and learning new play schemes, completing a sequence and having a visual end goal (such as having a parent at the end of the pillows to give a hi-five) can be so helpful! This gives the task a finite ending and a purpose. We can add a beam to walk over or walk along to practice gross motor skills like balance and add variety to the course. Sometimes, I will sit on the floor with my legs across to provide another “obstacle” for the child to notice and problem solve a way around. The possibilities are endless!
Putting toys in a laundry basket: This can be great for having your child use their muscles. If you have two baskets, you and your child can also have a “race” and see who can push their basket to the end goal first. This can be great for practicing vocabulary such as “your turn”, “my turn” or requesting words or phrases such as “let’s race!”. Narrate what toys go in the basket to practice naming common objects, and include sensory words and descriptions like “this is heavy!” or “this is hard!” to give your child the words to describe how they feel.
Sit down games and activities can be fun and have a goal.
Sensory bins can be great for those kids who like exploring textures like the sandbox, woodchips, or the mixed rocky-sandy beach. Some of my favorite sensory bins include water, kinetic sand, beans, or pasta. If your child is younger, a “taste-safe” sensory bin with water, whipped cream, or cooked pasta can be great substitutes. All you need is a large box and whatever tools you have at your disposal. Things like spoons and cups can practice fine motor skills and interact with everyday items. Another option for the winter time is to scoop snow in a beach pail and bring it inside. I’d recommend putting a beach towel or old blanket underneath to keep the sensory play located in one place. Different pragmatic functions can be modeled, such as requesting (“can I have the spoon?” or “my turn!”), protesting (“not like that!” or “don’t touch” if your child has a specific play idea in mind), labeling (“it’s white” or “it’s cold”), commenting (“I like that” or “that’s cool”), and asking questions (“what is that?” or while hiding various items in the sensory bin, “where is it?”). Try sitting and being quiet- what types of pragmatic functions does your child use? This can be great for learning more about how your child communicates with the world around them.
Play-doh is an amazing tool and sensory experience for a variety of reasons. Play-doh can support fine motor skills like tool-use (cutting with a toy knife or stabbing with a toy fork). It can support imitation (one of the major ways your child will learn new words or new skills!) if you demonstrate an action (such as rolling the dough into a ball). It can be a great opportunity to pause and see what your child is doing. Are they preferring to interact on their own? Are they stopping to look at you and what you are doing with the dough? If they are not paying attention to you, try sitting across from them or getting on their level on the floor. If you are naturally in their eyesight, they are more inclined to look in your direction (and see what cool things you might be doing!). Add exciting words like “wow!” or “oh no!” with increased affect or volume. Once you have your child’s attention, label or narrate your actions. “I made a ball!”, “It’s so soft!”, “My tower fell down”. Whatever you say next, you know you have your child’s attention and they are paying attention to the new ideas you showed them or the words that you said. You don’t need to use the Play-doh brand either; there are plenty of recipes on the Internet to create a working dough using water, flour, and oil.
Imagination games for those who like pretend play.
Pretend to go to school. Take turns pretending to be the teacher leading circle time activities (singing songs, talking about days of the week, the weather, emotions). This can be great for talking about routines, upcoming transitions about what a school day is like, and school expectations for kids getting ready to start daycare or preschool. Some children find pre-academic concepts (such as numbers, counting, letters, shapes, colors) easy to label and soothing to recite.
Hide and seek can be wonderful for supporting a variety of language skills and other developemental concepts. To be “successful” at hide and seek, your child needs to:
Remember to close their eyes and count to a certain number for opening their eyes to look for you. If you think about how many steps that is (close your eyes, count to 10, open your eyes, look for the play partner), that can be a lot of things to remember! Depending on their age and skill set, your child may need verbal reminders or a visual guide to remember the steps.
Scan the environment to support visual acuity.
Follow direction or location words, such as “in the kitchen”, “under the table”, or “in the bag”)
This game is great because there’s a built in goal (“find parent”). This can be expanded on by finding a toy (“where did Barbie hide?” or “where did teddy go?”). To add even more variation, I’d recommend using painter’s tape (so it won’t leave any sticky residue on the walls or furniture) to hide toys or common objects in new places, like “on the wall”, “on the door”, or “under the chair”.
Give toy figurines, bath toys, or toy animals a bath. This can be great not only for cleaning the toys, but also going through daily routines and imitating caregiver actions like cleaning. Grab an empty plastic tub, add some water and soap to the bin. Add some brushes, sponges, or washrags and narrate various actions, such as “let’s wash”, “let’s clean”, “let’s scrub”. Talk about the different textures or temperatures (“it’s wet”, “it’s soapy”, “it’s cold”, “it’s warm”.) This can be great for expanding vocabulary and talking about these actions and descriptions throughout the day, such as when you’re outside, or giving your child a bath.
This is not an exhaustive list; I hope this helps come up with some ideas for activities and inspires you to create more!
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